Kai woke up drenched in sweat, the fabric of his shirt clinging to his back like a second skin. His breath was shallow. The last remnants of his dream—a fire, hands grabbing him, a distant island—faded like smoke. But the emotions remained. Dread. Familiarity. Like he'd lived it before.
The feeling of Déjà vu was his constant companion.
He sat up slowly, blinking away the grogginess. Something was wrong. Although a similar appearance, this was not the same room as before, Everything has been changed, he looked around and noticed some unfamiliar faces from the ones that shared the room with him before.
They switched everyone around again.
He winced as a sharp pulse tore through his skull. The memory returned—the high-pitched frequency that knocked them all out. His hand flew to his temple.
"Ugh."
He scanned the room. Twenty beds lined the walls. One was empty—bed number nine.
Beside him, on the bed to his left, was Jonah.
Awake. Staring at the ceiling with a strange kind of calm. More lucid than usual. Less twitchy. Less… haunted.
He counted the beds that lined the walls, twenty in total. And next to him, on the bed to his left, was Jonah. Jonah was awake, staring at the ceiling with a strange calm. More lucid than usual. Less twitchy. Less... haunted. Kai glanced around. He noticed the numbers on the beds and One bed—bed number nine—was empty. Please be Nico's. He turned to Jonah. "You seem pretty calm.." He grabbed at his headache again. "I'm getting tied of this crap." Jonah shrugged, his voice dry. "Feels like we're being rearranged like chess pieces."
He winced as a sharp pulse tore through his skull. The memory returned—the high-pitched frequency that knocked them all out. His hand flew to his temple.
"Ugh."
He scanned the room. Twenty beds lined the walls. One was empty—bed number nine.
Beside him, on the bed to his left, was Jonah.
Awake. Staring at the ceiling with a strange kind of calm. More lucid than usual. Less twitchy. Less… haunted.
Kai glanced around. He noticed the numbers on the beds and One bed—bed number nine—was empty.
Please be Nico's.
He turned to Jonah. "You seem pretty calm."
Kai gritted his teeth, rubbing his head again. "I'm getting tired of this crap."
Jonah shrugged, his voice low and dry. "Feels like we're being rearranged. Like chess pieces."
Around them, soft whispers floated through the room—kids sitting cross-legged on their beds, murmuring questions no one could answer.
"Is this the last phase?"
"You think we're getting out soon?"
"I sure hope so…"
Kai scanned the room again. Something about the setup made his skin crawl. The symmetry. The spacing. The artificial quiet.
It felt curated. Like their isolation was being… concentrated.
Recess came, but Kai didn't follow the others out. He discretely lingered by the hallway instead. They never took a head count for recess so it was easy for him to disappear . There was a narrow corridor past the east stairwell—he'd seen it before but never thought to go down it. Today, though, it pulled at him. He felt like he had gone down it before.. in a dream.
He glanced around. No orderlies in sight.
The walls narrowed the deeper he went. The air turned colder, damper.
He spotted a loose panel beneath a defunct vent. Something about it buzzed in his chest.
He pried it open. Inside was a journal—weathered, cracked, pages curling at the edges like they were afraid to be read.
He opened it.
Messy handwriting. Furious rants. Stick-figure sketches of a sprawling island surrounded by black waves. Notes about "Phase Shifts," "Pattern Interference," and something called the "Culling."
Kai's hands trembled. One page was half-torn, the words still visible:
"They said we'd be heroes. But we were just lab rats."
He slammed the journal shut.
That night, he showed it to Jonah.
In hushed tones under the fluorescent buzz of their new dorm, Kai flipped through the pages.
Jonah scanned them with a clenched jaw. When he reached one of the sketches—a spiral diagram with the word "REALIGNMENT" scrawled across it—his face went pale.
"I've seen this before," Kai whispered.
Jonah leaned in. "Where? When?"
Kai shook his head and turned over. "I don't know. I just... have. That's all."
Lunch the next day was almost silent.
Fewer kids. Fewer voices. More eyes darting nervously.
Still no sign of Nico.
Kai sat near the end of the table. Across from him was Elena, pushing food around her tray like she couldn't taste it.
He noticed something—she was eating real food. Not just candy or chips or the sugary junk she'd used as armor for as long as he'd known her. Real food. Sort of.
She mostly just picked at it, like she was unsure if she could trust it—or herself.
None of the guys said anything. Kai included. Maybe silence was its own kind of support.
Aiden leaned in and whispered, "But the empty bed's gotta be Nico's, right?"
They exchanged uncertain glances. Kai just shrugged.
The food tasted like chalk.
A high-pitched frequency cracked through the speakers—sharp, piercing, the same as last time. Everyone flinched, hands to ears, wincing as a voice crackled in over the noise.
Then, the cafeteria doors opened.
A wave of staff poured in—dozens of them in white lab coats, moving like a synchronized machine.
Kai sat up straighter, pulse ticking upward without his permission. The white coats drifted through the room like ghosts, their faces unreadable. Too calm for whatever was coming.
One stepped forward—a tall woman with sharp eyes and a mouth that didn't smile. Her face reminded him of something cold.
"Welcome," she said, her voice smooth, almost bored. "You've made it to the next phase. Each of you will be interviewed by an examiner. You'll be asked if you wish to continue. That decision is yours."
Kai blinked. Continue what?
Whispers rippled through the room. Someone exhaled too loudly. A chair scraped.
He heard Aiden let out a worried sigh.
Kai's hand slipped into his pocket, fingers curling around the journal like it might anchor him to something real. His stomach twisted. Something was off. More than usual.
Then came the split—boys to the left, girls to the right. No hesitation. No explanation.
As Elena passed him on her way to the other side, their eyes met. Only for a second. But it was enough.
Her expression was locked down. Jaw clenched, like she was bracing for impact. Like she'd already had made her decision.
No words. Just that look.
Then she was gone.
Everyone was led through sterile white halls and handed thin hospital gowns—routine, like they were just in for checkups.
The boys and girls were separated into their own rooms and taken to a hospital-like room with ten identical beds. Each was assigned a number.
Kai pulled the curtain around his bed and changed in silence. The gown felt like paper against his skin—disposably thin, like it could tear at any second.
They were told to wait until their names were called.
He sat on the edge of the bed, the white room smelling like bleach and nothingness. He tried not to count the seconds. Tried not to wonder if Nico was doing the same somewhere else—or if he was even still here.
A clock ticked on the wall, slow and relentless.
Outside the door, footsteps echoed. Slow. Deliberate.
Then came the first name.